This blog is about spiritual awakening, maps and stages, the blinding effects of our strong momentum/conditioning (karmic propensities), view, realization, experience, etc. If you're new here, I recommend going through the 'Must Reads' articles (see sidebar). For discussions you are welcome to join the Awakening to Reality Facebook group

In this meditation,
as far as we are able, we climb up Jacob’s Ladder, the ladder to the
higher spiritual worlds. We might work at this meditation when in a
particularly good state. Or when in difficulty. Or when we feel an
especially strong need to delve into the depths of being. We do not
expect to climb all the way up. Indeed, this meditation can be a
measure of our progress, of the quality of our being and the purity of
our will, of how thoroughly we can release the grip of
self-centeredness and all the rest that keeps us mired in unfulfilling
modes of living. The attempt itself to climb this ladder, to operate in
progressively higher energies, gradually strengthens our being and
purifies our will.

To fully enter this practice
may require an extended block of time: an hour or more. Give each of the
stages its due. They cannot be rushed or pushed. Let each phase take as
much time as it needs to ripen into fullness. You will know when that
happens.

We begin with a thorough relaxation,
letting go the tensions, large and small, in every corner of our body,
in our thoughts, and in our emotions.

Next, we open to the energy
of sensation in the whole body. Energy
breathing can help build the sensation. We sit in the midst
of this
remarkable body of ours, in full awareness of the whole of it
through
sensation.
We continuously direct our intention, our will to support, strengthen,
and inhabit our full-body sensation, which grows more and more and more
substantial. Our will-to-be manifests through this whole body of
sensation.

We become aware of ourselves, of who we are.
We become ourselves. We experience ourselves as wholly and firmly
present, as I Am. "Here I am, sitting in this body of sensation, in robust presence.
I am here. Unique. Wholly myself. I fill the whole field of awareness
with my intention to be. I am making an act of being, of being here, of
being whole in the fullness of my current experience. I sit. I am. I am
complete. I continuously renew this act of being." These sayings
are not intended as affirmations to repeat to yourself; rather they
describe what you do, what you create and experience in this stage.

After some time, we notice the growing
spaciousness around and in our awareness. We naturally shift into that
fundamental, spacious awareness, that cognizant stillness behind and
beneath all sensation, thought, and emotion. While maintaining the
full-body sensation and the experience of I Am, we rest in consciousness.
No longer entangled with random sensations and sensory perceptions, we
let them be. We let all the sensory input be embraced in the context of
our consciousness, our pure awareness, the field and background within
which sensory perceptions flare up and fade out. This transparent
awareness forms an empty vessel, through which all the sensory
perceptions, thoughts, and emotions pass freely, unhindered, appearing
and disappearing. Behind it all, we rest in conscious awareness, as I
Am. We may notice a new relationship with time: we are partially
released from its dominion. Our perception of space also changes at this
level, where the categories of inner and outer no longer apply.

Gradually, consciousness itself grows
porous. Then, with the whole of our being, we simultaneously reach out
toward and open to a greater world beyond ourselves, beyond
consciousness, and begin to perceive the world of sacred light,
trickling into our darkness. Inwardly calling out to the Divine, we
repeatedly open toward that ultimate, creative light until only it
remains. On the outskirts of that world, we feel its warmth, we sense
its glow, we soak in its energy. In its fullness, all separateness, all
the ten thousand things merge into that Primordial Sacred Sun. That
light is part of our nature, the source of wisdom. We become the light,
basking in unimaginable joy.

Next — and remarkably there is a next — we
become aware of the other side of I Am, of the source from which it
arises, within a stillness of surpassing quality. We see our I as a knot
that blocks off the depths, a knot that makes itself the source of our
will, intentions, choices, and decisions, including the intention to
meditate in this moment. Gradually we loosen the knot until it gives
way, until I let go entirely of being myself, of being my own source.

Until this point, our ascent has been into
the depths within us. But always we have remained at the core of the
experience, with the experience outside of us, of our core. Now we must
empty that very core and open to what is deeper than our innermost
center. We ourselves become the outside to the Sacred Will of the World,
Who is our Source, and let that Will come through us, as us.

We inwardly prostrate ourselves, begging for
reconnection, begging to become a part of that Greatness. Silently and
wholeheartedly calling out to the Ultimate,
completely and utterly opening the very kernel of who we are, we reach
beyond the world of sacred light, into the unbounded emptiness, which is
also an overflowing fullness, an intimacy with all, with the All.

This is the Sacred Will of the World,
Of Whom I am now a particle,
Who lends me the will to be myself,
Who lends me my I,
Who is my very Self,
Whom I hope to become able to serve by emptying myself unconditionally,
In Whom we are all united,
And Who continuously creates and sustains this universe in love.

This ultimate stage of the meditation comes only as
an act of grace from Above. It lies well beyond our ability to make
happen, although our emptiness, our surrender, and our love are
necessary. Attempting to enter here, prayer may help. If you are so
inclined, silently repeat one of God’s names, one close to your heart,
one that both expresses your yearning and brings you peace.

In closing the meditation, we climb back down
Jacob’s Ladder to return to our daily life, though somewhat changed
inwardly. We come, in turn, back to the sacred light, back to the
cognizant stillness of consciousness and the presence of I Am, back to
sensation and relaxation, and thus back to the base of the ladder. We
rest in awareness as the meditation settles in us.